


Phantom

by Dance_Elle_Dance



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s07e01 It takes A Village, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-01
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-24 07:12:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4910095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dance_Elle_Dance/pseuds/Dance_Elle_Dance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's standing in the doorway, and it's been so long - and he's been so hopeless - that just the sight of her takes all the breath out of his body. (Originally posted on 9/21/11.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Phantom

**Author's Note:**

> Another Criminal Minds re-post, another EmilySpencer. Please enjoy!

He can't believe what Hotch is telling them.

Spencer Reid really wasn't sure what was going on when JJ and Hotch rounded them up - to tell them something, they had said. He wasn't sure what had happened. But surely, it could be anything when he really put his mind to it. Something could have happened to Doyle. Something could have happened to Declan. Basically, he thought of every possibility except for the one presenting itself in front of him right now.

But then Hotch started talking.

Their leader, the one that he expects to hear the truth from most of all, starts telling them of the elaborate ruse that he and JJ had gone through with to get Emily Prentiss out of the country. Safe.

The words mesh together in his brain, somehow they don't all fit with what he's been telling himself for the past months. They don't coincide together. The spell of grief he's been under seems to be too thick, that this little hope they have given him - the fact that _she's alive_ \- seems to be just another trick played on him.

He sees how Morgan reacts. Garcia. Rossi. All of them. They all have matching looks of incredulity. Ones that match his own, he's sure.

"But we buried her," Reid says, as if those feeble words could make everything back to how he's believed it was for so very long.

But Hotch just stares at him, rendering him speechless yet again. He is no nonsense, and even though he lied about her dying, Hotch certainly wouldn't lie about bringing her back to life.

Certainly, as Reid reasons over the reason why Prentiss can't be here, the fallacies of that very fact slap him in the face. People have faked their deaths numerous times. They have ways of making people disappear and reappear somewhere else, but the fact that it's happened so close to home makes him question all of which he's been feeling.

Most of all, he feels numb.

Just in the middle of Morgan's impending tirade towards Hotch, he hears footsteps. He lifts up his head and stares.

And stares.

She's standing in the doorway, and it's been so long - and he's been so hopeless - that just the sight of her takes all the breath out of his body. He's not sure what to think, but his heart feels like it has stopped dead in his chest before kicking up, beating like a thing possessed. His fingers clench tightly onto the fabric of his pants, as if to anchor him to whatever reality still exists.

Part of him is still convinced the whole thing is a dream. That this must be succumbing to delusions or something equally more plausible to him than the fact that Prentiss is standing right there in front of him, looking just as radiant as she had when she was alive.

But, wait, she never _wasn't_ alive.

His brain - though capable of receiving new information - is almost unable to process this. He just stares at her, at her large brown eyes and haunted expression and can't let go of the image of the coffin, of putting her in the ground, of knowing that he will never see her again. Never see her smile, never hear her laugh. Never, never, never…

But all of that was false. Fabricated falsities that should have never happened in the first place. He should have never had to go those long months thinking she was dead. She should have never had to fake her death. She should have been with him - with the team - all along.

Her voice rings throughout the formerly quiet space, overflowing with apologies, and _oh God_ how he's missed her voice.

Reid can't take his eyes off of her.

He decides to memorize each and every moment of this particular event - not that it will be hard, with his memory - and not that he had any choice but to memorize this moment. Right here, right now, is one of those times that no one could ever forget. He knows this like he knows the back of his hand.

She goes through everyone, embracing them, smiling at them. Happy to be back, happy to be around again.

"Not a day went by when I didn't think about you guys."

_Emily._ Her name rings through his mind, as if he's never thought anything else before in his life. The very thought is almost too ridiculous to process, but process he does. He watches her move from JJ to Garcia to Morgan to Rossi to Hotch…

She reaches him, wraps her arms around him in such an embrace that he's sure she can feel his heart pounding out of his chest and into hers.

"I missed you, Reid."

He hugs back with all his might, dreading the moment when he'll have to let go.


End file.
